| After piecing together the disconnected history threads, a fascinating life story of this loco appeared. Built it June of 1946 by the Montreal Locomotive Works, the loco served the CP until retirement in 1959 and storage for 5 years. The loco was first sold to George Hart for use on excursions for his Rail Tours Inc. It was restored in 1966 and toured around the Northeast. During a freak winter storm in 1967, the loco and a sister #1286 were temporarily loaned to Jersey City to supply steam for heating. The locos returned to tourist trade in 1968. Eventually #1238 was sold to Jack Showalter in 1973 for his Alleghany Central tourist Railroad in Covington, Va. It remained there until 1984 when a track ownership dispute caused the train to be moved to Cumberland, MD, It continued as a tourist train in Cumberland until 1991. By then, most of the duties were then handled by a diesel loco. The tourist train moved again to Staunton, VA and lasted until the death of Jack Showalter in 2014. In 2015, the loco was sold to the Prairie Dog Central Railroad, It was brought back to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to be used for tourist trains there.. Original Specs - 70" drivers, 250 psi boiler pressure, 20x28" cylinders, engine weight of 229,500 lb, tractive effort of 34,000 lb. G5 class . Jim Lockart took the color slide while visiting the railroad line. |